In today's information-driven world, it is often desirable to present information in various different media. “Media” or “medium” as used herein, refers to any mechanism for presenting content. Examples of media include non-electronic media such as paper, etc on which content may be presented (e.g., content may be printed, painted, or otherwise presented on such non-electronic media). A further example of media includes electronic media, such as electronic devices operable to display content stored on a computer readable medium, etc. Content refers to any type of information that may be present on a media, such as images (still, moving, video, etc), text, etc.
Content created by a content author, such as a designer, developer, programmer, graphic artist, and the like, may be created specifically for presentation on multiple different devices or in multiple different formats. These different displays and formats may have several different presentation variables, such as display size, aspect ratio, resolution, size, pixel shape and size, and the like. The content author would generally create, reshape, or recreate the content for each different targeted format.
Content may also have been originally created for print or for traditional broadcast media or used in print, but later thought to be useful for use or presentation in different ways, such as on a computer screen, mobile phone screen, electronic time varying display, or the like. In creating this print content, it may have been created or printed specifically for a certain size, such as letter size. However, it may also be useful for presentation on postcard-size paper, A4 paper, PAL, NTSC, or the like, or in a different media type entirely, such as on a standard computer screen, mobile phone, electronic time varying display, or the like. In order to repurpose this content, content authors typically reshape or reformat the original layout to meet the size or layout restrictions of the new, targeted use, device, or media type. This process is significantly compounded when repurposing video as thousands of individual frames must be considered.
Creation and modification of such content is typically accomplished using computers and graphics design or page layout applications, such as Adobe Systems Incorporated's ACROBAT®, PAGEMAKER®, ILLUSTRATOR®, FREEHAND®, FRAMEMAKER®, FLASH®, AFTER EFFECTS®, PREMIERE PRO®, DREAMWEAVER®, GOLIVE®, Microsoft Corporation's FRONTPAGE®, and the like. The user generally creates, copies, opens, or scans the content into the development area and graphically generates or manipulates the content and layout to fit the desired target size or specific media presentation aspect for the targeted use. For example, if a company desires to create marketing pamphlets in various paper sizes and also for display on its websites, the author would create the graphics and other content for the pamphlet in an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), such as one of the design applications noted above, and then manipulate the graphics of the pamphlet to make it fit onto the desired target size or device in a pleasing or logical manner. Similar approaches are made when using or converting vide images. The author would generally use multiple editing sessions resulting in multiple files to accommodate all of the intended target formats. The resulting content would then be printed, stored, or placed into whatever other kind of medium or format for which it was intended.
Another relevant example is the purposing, i.e., creation or repurposing, of content for electronic devices, including personal computers (PCs), and mobile electronic devices, such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable media devices, such as Apple Computer Inc.'s IPOD®, Creative Technology Ltd.'s ZEN VISION™, iRiver Inc.'s CLIX™, and the like. As these electronic devices become more rich media capable, they become a natural place to consume time varying, interactive, and rich media information. Therefore, content authors are involved in creating new and repurposing existing content specifically for certain target electronic devices, such as target mobile electronic devices. Typically, content authors will make decisions on the layout, presentation, or format of information on a per device basis. With so many devices having multiple different presentation variables (e.g., different display sizes, etc.), there is a considerable amount of time designing and then fitting the designed content for multiple devices.
The wide variety of aspect ratios and resolutions available across various media today, and, in particular, across mobile phones and other mobile devices creates an enormous number of variations for any content that is intended to reach multiple media devices. Because a developer purposing content for multiple media devices would generally create several hundred different variations of the content, content creation and repurposing is a very repetitive process that can be very tedious and time consuming. The potential costs to purposing content may, therefore, limit the amount of such authoring that is done and, as a result, reduce the potential benefit that new consumers may have in using content in multiple, different media. Moreover, the time constraints involved in bringing content to the market may result in coarse design decisions being made which may produce an inconsistent quality of information and content display. This approach to handling many target formats authors typically make single sets of decisions for multiple target devices. Such coarsely designed content may be too large or too small for a useful or pleasant user experience.